Review: The Magicians

The Magicians by Lev Grossman
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I'm giving this a generous 2.5 stars rounded up. The main character, and let's be honest, most of the secondary characters, weren't remotely likable. The story had great potential that felt squandered and lost in the sea of depressing and melancholy emotions that the author drenched this world in. The twisted Narnia (which I read online the author's intention was to actually use Narnia but was told he wasn't allowed) is disturbing, but still intriguing... but the nihilistic under-/over-/every-which-way-tones kinda sapped all the fun out of this story, which is sad because, as stated before, SO MUCH POTENTIAL.

I've heard book two and three eventually end up going in a better direction and overall the series is a good one... but it's hard to believe that the publishers kept this one alive long enough for a book two or three... or a tv series... but I guess that's what happens when you're a big TIME book critic. No one wants to piss you off.

2.5 stars for Alice and Josh and sometimes Penny, amazing potential, some cool magic, and an interesting, if dark, twist on Lewis' masterworks. The other stars were lost by Quentin's inability to do anything of value or show any kind of growth for longer than it takes to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop.

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